In my new book The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS, I recount what happened when Saladin’s forces defeated the Crusaders at Hattin on July 4, 1187.
Saladin ordered the mass execution of his Christian opponents. According to his secretary, Imad ed-Din, Saladin “ordered that they should be beheaded, choosing to have them dead rather than in prison. With him was a whole band of scholars and Sufis and a certain number of devout men and ascetics; each begged to be allowed to kill one of them, and drew his sword and rolled back his sleeve.” The great jihad warrior took particular satisfaction in the scene: “Saladin, his face joyful, was sitting on his dais; the unbelievers showed black despair.” The warriors of jihad captured the True Cross and displayed it in Damascus, upside down.
These kinds of actions are the aspiration of Islamic jihadis to this day.
Forewarned is forearmed. Click here to preorder The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS.